In an unexpected confession, the man said he had strangled the victim in the building’s basement, then set the body on fire.
A man was arrested on Tuesday hours after he claimed responsibility for starting a building fire in South Africa last year that killed 76 people while trying to get rid of the body of someone he had strangled in the basement of the rundown apartment complex on the orders of a drug dealer.
The shocking and unexpected confession came when the man was testifying at an ongoing inquiry into the causes of the fire in August at an apartment building in downtown Johannesburg, which was one of South Africa’s worst disasters.
The 29-year-old man, whose identity was not disclosed, had said at the inquiry that he had killed another man on the night of the fire by beating him and strangling him, according to South African media reports of the testimony. He said he then poured petrol on the man’s body and set it alight with a match, according to the reports.
He testified that he was a drug user and was told to kill the man by a drug dealer who lived in the building.
Police said later Tuesday that they had arrested a man in connection with the fire after he had confessed to being involved in the fire at the inquiry. The man was facing 76 counts of murder, 120 counts of attempted murder and a charge of arson, police said in a statement.
